"When I visit my mother tomorrow in Green Meadows, her nursing home, it will be for the fourth time since I moved back, this after a decade of sometimes seeing her only once a year."
The protagonist of this novel tells his story as a first-person narrator. His name is curiously similar to the author of the book, Francisco Goldman. The name is not the only similarity. Like Goldman, Goldberg grew up in New York City before moving to Mexico and moving back. Other concurrences are too numerous to be merely coincidence. Indeed, this novel is an example of autofiction, meaning it is partly autobiographical fact and partly fiction. The premise of the story revolves around the narrator's trip to his mother's nursing home. Although the present-day chronology only covers the three-day trip, that journey is what stimulates a less linear approach to biographical chronology. The narrator goes backward and forward in time to insinuate a more kaleidoscopic overview of his life leading to this moment of shipping himself up to Boston.
"Arlene Fertig was the first girl I ever kissed."
Thus begins a story which comprises about four pages. The memory of his first kiss is not entirely a pleasant one that fills him with nostalgic warmth. It starts out that way, as he recalls his excitement at the thought the kiss in the woods was going to lead directly to his having a girlfriend and being the envy of all the guys who did not. But things take a really awful turn that involves a racist joke at his expense (not coincidentally involving a monkey) and becoming the object of derisive laughter throughout school the following Monday. Its appearance as a flashback early in the narrative at first seems like little more than a horrible childhood memory. As the story of Francisco's life continues to progress, however, this incident becomes central to the life which follows. Much of the book is devoted to a series of disappointing romantic encounters and each of them collectively trace back to the story of Arlene Fertig and the cruel boyfriend she'd had all along.
"All my life, I've been answering some version of the inevitable question: But aren't you Jewish? (Weren't you just introduced to me as Frank Goldberg? Then what do you mean that you were baptized in that church?) I'm half-Jewish, I've always answered. Usually adding: My mother is Catholic. (I'm half-Jewish and half-Catholic I'm sure I used to say as a boy.)"
One can see the confusion and frustration from the name alone. Francisco does not often pair with a name that ends in "berg." In addition to facing disappointments in his search for the fairy tale version of love, the narrator must deal with a variety of irrational prejudices. In fact, the title "Monkey Boy" stems from a childhood nickname conferred upon him by bullies. Although one might suspect such a nickname derives from physical attributes relating to simian appearance, in fact it derives from physical attributes related to xenophobia. He is a "monkey boy" because his features indicate that his ancestry traces back to "banana land." Making the situation even more unbearable is that while he was actually visiting the land of his people—Guatemala—he contracts tuberculosis which leads to problems with slow development. The story thus becomes at one level a meditation upon the effects of racism that is especially directed toward immigrants from south of the border.
